Missing boaters located after stormy night adrift

ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. – Rescue crews from Coast Guard Stations Ocracoke and Hatteras Inlet, N.C., and Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City searched the waters of Pamlico Sound, N.C., for two missing boaters, Sunday, June 22.

At approximately 2:00 p.m. Sunday, watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector North Carolina received a call from the Dare County 911 center reporting a red skiff with a red top, disoriented and out of gas in the Pamlico Sound. The report was received from a third party who was the last person to see the vessel. Dawn Ware and Jennifer Broderick, both tourists visiting the Outer Banks, were the two people on the missing skiff.

The Coast Guard along with Hatteras Island Rescue and Dare and Hyde counties searched throughout the night and morning combing the waters of the Pamlico Sound. After spending a stormy night at sea, the vessel was located at approximately 7:30 a.m. by a Good Samaritan vessel. The vessel is currently being towed to Englehard, N.C. The vessel was a rental and had no marine radio or GPS onboard.

The Coast Guard urges boaters not to rely on their cell phones for communication. A marine radio should always be your primary means of communicating while on the water.